The man suspected of killing British schoolgirl Caroline Dickinson in a French youth hostel seven years ago has admitted he committed the crime, it was claimed yesterday.
A French judicial official said that Spaniard Francisco Arce Montez admitted he was at the hostel in Pleine Fougeres, Brittany, where Caroline died.
However, a source from the French prosecutor's office said earlier that Montez, 53, told a judge behind closed doors in a court committal session that he raped and killed the Cornish girl.
''It is now a question of establishing the extent of his motivation for being at Pleine Fougeres youth hostel and just how premeditated the attack on Caroline was,'' the source said.
The 13-year-old, from Launceston, Cornwall, was brutally raped and murdered on July 18, 1996, in the dormitory she was sharing with her friends, who were not disturbed by the noises she made and who did not see the attacker.
It is the biggest break in the case since the suspect was found in Florida and extradited to France in November 2001. Montez has long denied any role in the killing of the teenager.
A source from the prosecutor's office said it expects investigating magistrate Jean-Pierre Gimonet to turn over the dossier in the case before July.
An order will then be issued for Montez to be sent before the criminal court of Ille-en-Vilaine, the district where the crime occurred, the source said.
The Spaniard was extradited from the US to France in November 2001 after DNA tests matched him to the scene of Caroline's death.
On arrival in France, he was challenged with the schoolgirl's rape and murder.
Montez, from Gijon, Spain, is currently in custody in Rennes until the trial which could start later this year.
Speaking from his workplace in Cornwall, Caroline's father John Dickinson said he did not wish to comment on any developments until after the trial.
A statement released on behalf of Caroline's parents by Devon and Cornwall police yesterday said: ''It is wrong for anyone to comment on matters which are still within the judicial system.
''All evidence must be tested in the appropriate forum. The Devon and Cornwall Constabulary and Caroline's parents will not comment further.''
Caroline's parents were initially concerned at the slow pace of the inquiry and in April 2001 won their struggle to have an inquest held under English law into their daughter's death.
The inquest prompted a newspaper to publish a picture of Montez, one of the 50
suspects named by French authorities.
The move led to his arrest.
Just three weeks earlier, Montez had been arrested in Miami, Florida, for breaking into a youth hostel and committing a lewd act in a female dormitory.
By an amazing coincidence, an immigration officer in Detroit picked up a week-old copy of the paper and reading about Caroline's murder was prompted to put Montez's name into the immigration department's database.
It produced a match. Days later, French authorities asked for DNA from Montez so they could carry out their own tests.
It yielded another match and a warrant was issued for Montez's international arrest.
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